Luxury as pedagogy of global modernity in contemporary China

BADARÓ, MÁXIMO

Paris

Workshop; The routes of luxury; 2015

Collège d?études mondiales-Fondation Maison de sciences de l?homme,

Luxury can be treated as a cultural, economical and political dispositive composed by heterogeneous elements ? objects, people, capitals, circuits of exchange, images, travels, advertising and market research agencies, fairs, places- that mediate the relations between Chinese people and foreign things. I argue that one of the main characteristics of this dispositive is a pedagogical approach of these relations that mirror changing representations of the place and role of China in global modernity. This dispositive deploys the idea of luxury in pedagogical terms by framing Chinese consumers as people that lack and need to learn fundamental knowledge and meanings associated with global modernity. I approach this topic through a preliminary ethnographical exploration that I carried out in June 2014 of some actors and settings that play a key role in the networks of luxury in Shanghai and Beijing: businessmen and foreign experts in market research on luxury consumption in China, and exhibitions and fairs related to luxury.